Cube

Vincenzo Natali Canada | 1997 | 90 mins

This is the first full length feature by Natali, which is an extension of his previous short Elevated. There three tense people are locked in a jammed lift together. Cube is equally compulsive and claustrophobic: the story finds a group of six individuals somehow transported from their day to day lives to a huge sarcophagus made up of 14 foot by 14 foot rooms. Sound a bit dull? Not when you realise that each room is designed to hamper escape and may or may not be death-trap.

Each member of the cast has a unique skill which may or may not help them escape from the prison including a cop (Quentin), a jailbreaker (Rennes), a doctor (Leaven) and a Maths genius (Holloway). However their escape will depend on their cooperation which gets more and more strained as time ticks by, with oxygen supplies dwindling and progress seemingly coming to nothing.

The special effects are quite extraordinary - particularly at the very start, and they keep you on the edge of your seat the whole way through the film, as you realise what could happen if they make but one slip. The action is fairly unpredictable, with one's preconceptions being dashed again and again in a way which is both refreshing and unnerving - this builds to make the tension almost tangible.

Made on a minimal budget with a 14' x 14' cell in just over a month - the director's dicing with death (excuse the pun) makes for one of the most edge of the seat compulsive films of recent years as well as one of the most original sci-fi films.

Review by Stephen J Brennan
Taken from EUFS programme spring 2000